Bad Decisions, Worse Luck: How Borders Blew It

Publishing Perspectives

Firing its community relations coordinators, handing Amazon its web site, “category management”...Why 2001 was the beginning of the end for the bookseller. While the disappearance of Borders might possibly be seen as a referendum on the long-term viability of bookstores and their ability to compete against digitization and e-books, it should be remembered that the basis for Borders’ demise was laid a decade ago, way back in 2001. At the time, the company had more than 2,000 stores in the United States (360 of them superstores), 50 overseas, and earned more than $3 billion in annual revenue. But a series of unfortunate decisions and one tragedy permanently undermined the company’s position in the marketplace. READ MORE >>

Will Others Fill in the Gap Left By Borders? My daughter will miss Borders: for the past year, every Saturday morning following her ballet lessons we’ve driven to the local Borders to buy “Daddy’s pink newspaper” — the Financial Times – and a new children’s book for her. Of course, trying to explain to her what happened to Borders would be pointless...I’ll just take her to the local Barnes & Noble instead.